2013 Lucky Peak Fishing Thread

[sawtooth]

My understanding is that the 11-13 inch fish are next years mature kokes. Earlier this year almost all of my catch were 15-18 inch fish from Lucky Peak. Now those fish are few and far between. In my experience, this immature class of fish does not become aggressive towards our lures until midsummer the year before they spawn. Kokanee are plankton feeders and hit our lures more out of aggression then as a food source. It could be that we have a large number of "jack" this year and they will try to spawn before they are mature. Not sure if kokanee have a tendency to try to spawn early, but several other salmon species are known to do so.

 

[Allyn S]

That is what I originally thought as well Sawtooth but looking at the eggs and milt they are pretty much at the same stage of development for the two different size classes. It has been my experience that next years spawners have only tiny milt and egg pockets that are not very developed. That isn't the case in the "small" race I have been getting so far this year. That is what made me start to wonder if there was something else going on because they were such different size but the eggs and milt showed them to be this years spawners.

I didn't start fishing this year till the 4th of July so didn't get to see the early bite you described. Like I said it is just an idea, might be nothing to it but gives us something to talk about besides the normal "went out fished 25' deep, caught kokanee" we have been kicking around here lately.

 

[sawtooth]

Allyn,
I will have to spend a little more time next time at the cleaning table and check out those little ones. I wonder if water depth or location spent in the lake during certain times of the year may have stunted this years fish (higher concentrations with less food), or the larger fish are a few that spawned one year later. Kind of like a B run steelhead. Lucky Peak doesn't usually have many successful wild spawners, but if I remember correctly we had a pretty late spring and cooler summer a few years back and that would help with wild fry making it back to the lake from Mores Creek. Early and warm summers makes Mores creek water often too hot for good fry retention according to a fish biologist I talked with last year.

 

[kok-head]

That is what I originally thought as well Sawtooth but looking at the eggs and milt they are pretty much at the same stage of development for the two different size classes. It has been my experience that next years spawners have only tiny milt and egg pockets that are not very developed. That isn't the case in the "small" race I have been getting so far this year. That is what made me start to wonder if there was something else going on because they were such different size but the eggs and milt showed them to be this years spawners.

I didn't start fishing this year till the 4th of July so didn't get to see the early bite you described. Like I said it is just an idea, might be nothing to it but gives us something to talk about besides the normal "went out fished 25' deep, caught kokanee" we have been kicking around here lately.

I boated lots of kokanee in november 2012 (11-13" range) and the egg sacs were well developed and no doubt they were next year's spawners, fish and game would settle the debate for sure about 2 different plants/categories of kokanee (or about a more natural populaiton mixed in with lots of planters) but I'm thinking sawtooth is correct and its a "this year vs. next year" fish situation and now we are all boating mostly next year's spawners, I've talked with fish and game before in 2010 and 2011 and they say its difficult to tell about LP being natuarally repopulated but they said it is very unlikely especially in the last 4 or 5 yrs

 

[Pzak]

I have seen the exact pattern Kok-head has. I can also second that Kokanee within LP has minimal natural reproduction. After speaking with F&G, I know that eggs from fish that have been trapped from the weir at Deadwood have been used to stock LP. This spring my son caught a kok over 19" from LP. That fish simply looked like a different species from the others. We had a good day and mixed in a couple of the 17" fish as well as a few 13-14" that we are all catching now. On the way out, we stopped at a check station and had the chance to get the fish measured and speak with a biologist. He asked if he could take the ear bones out of that fish and told me that he doubted it was a 3 year old "carry over" fish like I figured. He had no solid explanation I can remember as to the differences in the fish that he said were all two year old fish. I don't know what the answer is, but it does seem like there are two different strains of genes in the lake even after being told they all come from the same place.

 

[BorntoFish01]

Out on the water at 0730 Spring Shores area. Already about 5-6 boats working the deep water in front. In time boats pretty much switched to working the point and down towards the dam. Fishing was slow from what we saw and experienced. Off the water by noon with seven 13-inchers [4 male, 3 female]. All were this year's spawners with well developed skeens and milt sacs. Females nice bright silver, males with slight blush. All caught on DR's pretty much at 25ft depth. Used a variety of standard gear with nothing proving particularly hot except DR vs. lead core. Spoke to two other boats at ramp when we came in. One boat had 5, the other 7. Slow but nice morning to be on the water and no water maggots to deal with.

 

[salmonster]

This has been the story of 2013 for us. We have put been releasing the 13" and keeping the 15-18" all year. One day the week after the 4th of July we released over 100 of the 13s trying to get to 2 limits of the bigger fish, We gave up after 10 nice ones and went home with 2 of the smaller to complete our limit. I was also thinking that the smaller fish were next year's fish, but based on the information posted here, it does not sound like it. We do seem to be more likely to catch the bigger fish deeper- often over 40 feet. Several of the largest koks we have ever caught in LP have been this year, but there a higher percntage of the smaller fish than any year since I learned how to do this (thank you Tut).

 

[mrgene]

Went to LP friday ,got on water at 7:30 along with 5-6 other boats. Nothing doing till 10:15, then picked up 2 in 5 minutes.Double header at 11:30, 3 of them 15", 1 slightly smaller. Lost 3 in between. Not going to be good fishing weekend as a LARGE" boogie board" group setting up for a few weekend event. Lake like an ocean at 12:30. Saw the 12 other boats pick up a few around 10:00. Fish still at 20-30'.

 

[kok-head]

fished 8/4/13 from 7 - 8pm, worked hard for several hits and then finally landed and released 2 males that will spawn this year, 13" and 14", about 15ft deep with a small dodger and the same 1.5" pink crappie tube which is the only thing I can get to consistently produce this yr, talked to another boat that worked hard all day for 2 limits and they did get into some 16" fish

I'm getting excited for the lake drawn down and for all those fat bright 14" next year's spawners to fill the smoker with, the kokanee sure are easy to locate with less water in lucky peak

 

[AlumaChris]

Nobody has posted in over a month. Is the kokanee fishing over for the year? I was thinking about giving it a try in the next few weeks. This is my first year with a boat and I am still getting things set up. Should have my downriggers attached in the next week. Hope I am not too late!!

 

[Physion]

I got 6 on Wednesday and 4 yesterday. It was slow both days for me. I'm wondering if most of them have moved towards the lower end.

 

[bayhorse]

I went out sat with my son to try a new to us boat, spent most of the day playing and swimming. Although we did troll for about 2 hrs, hooked 3 landed 2without the net that dad forgot! They where at 15-20 ft. We used copper pink splash 4/0 Vance dodger with a glow orange crappie tube double hooks and shoe peg corn. One was caught on our top producer of the year a chrome 4/0 lure Jensen dodger with a silver wedding ring cherry bomb red double hooks and shoe peg corn.
Thanks to all who have posted it has helped us have a great year!
Buy the way the fish were twin 13 inches bright and fat. They will be great Sunday dinner on the grill.

 

[kok-head]

fished 9/20/13, started at first light up mores creek with floating rapalas and super dupers on long lines and found a lot of cooperative rainbows, also got into some perch which I've heard of being in LP but have never landed any

landed quite a few pikeminnows up mores creek, the gulls that followed us all morning ate well

fished spring shores for a few hrs and caught kokanee and rainbows similar to the ones in the photos, most of the fish we caught were between 11"-15", we landed a bunch and lost a bunch, didn't hook anything deeper than 25' and most of the kokanee were caught in less than 10' of water, any 1.5"-2.5" crappie tube or squid behind dodgers caught fish

spring shores still has a dock in the water, we only saw a few other boats and they didn't appear to be catching

we had non-stop action all day, if any of you were up there today I hope you brought home full limits

 

[Physion]

Most of the kokanee were in shallow, 10' of water? Interesting, and a bit unusual. How was the wind? The forecast kept me home yesterday. Thanks for the report. Maybe next week for me.

 

[mrgene]

Most of the kokanee were in shallow, 10' of water? Interesting, and a bit unusual. How was the wind? The forecast kept me home yesterday. Thanks for the report. Maybe next week for me.

I have seen this before when kokanee fishing in Canada. I think they are feeding because they seem to hit anything.

 

[kok-head]

Most of the kokanee were in shallow, 10' of water? Interesting, and a bit unusual. How was the wind? The forecast kept me home yesterday. Thanks for the report. Maybe next week for me.

surprisingly the wind wasn't bad, the 15 - 20mph winds that I expected never hit LP when we were on the water

this year I've been dragging buckets from my front cleats to both slow me down in a tail wind and make the cross winds more manageable and it helps quite a bit

it was quite strange regarding the depth of the cooperative salmon, only landed a few below the 10' depth and they were 10-11" fish, the surface water temps we were finding varied

we found a few pockets of water at spring shores with water temps as low as 60 degrees and others were as high as 68 degrees, it took us about 2 hrs to figure out the kokanee and the rainbows kept us busy during that time, as soon as our lures would get near those cooler water areas the rods would start bouncing so we just kept following the cooler water as it drifted and that kept us in the kokanee

 

[conservationist]

So what's happening at LP? Now that all the jet ski's and ski boats are probably gone, has the Koke fishing picked up?

 

[kok-head]

So what's happening at LP? Now that all the jet ski's and ski boats are probably gone, has the Koke fishing picked up?

fishing was great when i went on 9/20/13 and it should keep getting better with the water cooling, i'd get up there as soon as you can, i'm really surprised no one on KFF is posting right now, everyone is probably busy hunting

if you decide to go try starting at first light trolling the surface with some spoons or floating rapalas tipped with a maggott or a piece of worm, i always start that way and get some good rainbows doing it, some people can get the kokanee to bite at first light but not me so for the first hr or two i always chase the rainbows before switching to kokanee tactics

 

[conservationist]

Thanks Kok-head. Not a fan of rainbows (spoiled on smoked Kokes!) so maybe I'll just sleep in an extra hour!

 

[mrgene]

kok-head,
where do you find maggots at in the boise-nampa area?
gene